Stats show Cristian Romero’s absence vs Leeds could be a blessing in disguise, Tottenham’s secret ‘weapon’ to be unveiled
Tottenham may benefit from Cristian Romero being out for their trip to Leeds this weekend as Thomas Frank looks to utilise one of his defenders’ secret talents.
Tottenham have impressed under Thomas Frank so far this season with 11 points from their first six Premier League outings to climb to fourth in the table as it stands.
Recently appointed Tottenham club-captain Cristian Romero has played a key part in their improvement on last seasons performances from centre-back so far this term, but he missed out on their midweek Champions League clash against Bodo/Glimt.
They struggled without him in their side after Frank confirmed that he did not travel to Norway due to a “precaution,” as Tottenham had to come back from 2-0 down to secure a point late on against Bodo.
A trip to Leeds now awaits on Saturday as Spurs aim to continue their decent league form, but despite Romero potentially being set to miss out once again, the statistics show that they could benefit from his replacement being in the starting eleven, particularly in an attacking sense.
Kevin Danso’s long-throw can deepen Leeds’ set-piece woes
Kevin Danso came into Tottenham’s starting eleven against Bodo in Romero’s absence, and he looks to have nailed down his place as Frank’s third centre-back behind the Argentine and Micky Van de Ven after some decent early season performances.
He joined the club permanently from Lens in May, after a loan spell in the second-half of last season, but the arrival of the Danish boss in the summer has seen him add another element to his game that was not introduced in 2024-25.
Danso started taking long-throws against PSG in the Super Cup last month, and they were a success as they caused chaos in the penalty area and led to a number of big chances for Frank’s side, with Djed Spence later comparing him to former Stoke City man Rory Delap.
He has only featured for 11 minutes in the Premier League up to now, with two other starts in the cup and Champions League, so has not had many chances to bring out his throw, but this weekend could provide the ideal platform to do so once again.
That is because Leeds have been poor at defending set-pieces so far this season, with their six goals conceded from those situations in the Premier League only better than West Ham, who have let in eight.
Daniel Farke’s side conceded the highest share of goals from set pieces in the 2024-25 Championship campaign, despite coming top of the league, and they still have a pretty similar core group of defenders now that have clearly not improved that stat any so far.
The German boss has history of setting his sides up to struggle from such situations too, after Norwich conceded a league-high 16 set-piece goals in the 2019–20 season while he was in charge.
It is clear that this is something Tottenham, and Danso in particular, can exploit, with his arrowing throws being akin to a corner or free-kick when executed well, and so Romero being out may well benefit them this Saturday.
What Danso and Thomas Frank have said about his long-throws
Danso became aware that he would be tasked with hurling the ball into the opposition’s penalty area when Frank held long-throw auditions in pre-season training over the summer and he came out on top.
In a recent interview with The Times he spoke about how much of an asset he knows it can be, saying: “I’ve just always been able to throw. Distance was important — the closer you get to the goal, the easier it is to score. But then they were looking at our technique as well, and stuff like that. It’s something you work on, because it can be a weapon.
“We caused PSG a lot of problems with the long throw. Football is about creating chances and scoring goals so that’s what we’re going to do.”
Frank himself often told his players to do long-throws during his time at Brentford, and he appreciated Danso’s threat after the PSG game, saying: “It’s a weapon. In any game you go into, you need as many weapons as possible to try to score goals.”
It is clear that Spurs are trying to find other ways to score goals this season to improve on a poor 2024-25 campaign, and this game against Leeds looks ideal for the Austrian centre-back to utilise his talents in.